In 2017, the lecture “Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology” at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Vienna is organized by Philipp Budka, Wolfgang Kraus & Elke Mader and discusses the following topics:
- Introduction & Discussion: Why Social & Cultural Anthropology? What is Social & Cultural Anthropology?
- Colonialism & Post-colonialism (& Cinema/Film)
- Globalization: Theoretical Discourse
- Globalization & Migration
- Tourism
- Economy & Subsistence
- Material Culture & Consumption
- Nature & Environment
- Social Organization & Kinship (Wolfgang Kraus)
- Ritual & Mythology (Elke Mader)
- Religion & World Views
- Media & Communication Technologies / Visual Culture
- Film: „Oh, What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me!“ & Discussion
The lecture is connected to the preparatory lecture “Propaedeutic Social & Cultural Anthropology” (Wolfgang Kraus) which includes basics such as:
- The Cultural and the Social
- Diversity
- Ethnocentrism
- Social & Cultural Anthropology Methodology/Methods
- Universalism & Relativism
- History of Social & Cultural Anthropology
Required Reading
- General: Eriksen, Thomas H. 2010 or 2015. Small Places, Large Issues. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. London: Pluto Press.
- Colonialism: Wolf, Eric R. 1986. Die Völker ohne Geschichte: Europa und die andere Welt seit 1400. Frankfurt: Campus-Verlag, pp. 192-227.
- Gender: Nöbauer, Herta. 2014. His/Her-Story war einmal: Sex/Gender–Systeme im historischen und regionalen Vergleich. In: Karl R. Wernhart and Werner Zips (Hg.). Ethnohistorie. Rekonstruktion und Kulturkritik. Eine Einführung. 4. überarbeitete und aktualisierte Auflage. Wien: Promedia, pp. 204-218.
- Media & Visual Culture: Murdock, Graham and Sarah Pink. 2005. Picturing Practices: Visual Anthropology and Media Ethnography. In: Eric W. Rothenbuhler and Mihai Coman (Hg.). Media Anthropology. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE, pp. 149-161.
- Migration:
1) Armbruster, Heidi. 2009. Anthropologische Ansätze zu Migration. In: Maria Six-Hohenbalken and Jelena Tosic (Hg.). Anthropologie der Migration: Theoretische Grundlagen und interdisziplinäre Aspekte. Wien: Facultas.WUV, pp. 52-69.
2) Tošić, Jelena, Kroner, Gudrun and Susanne Binder. 2009. Anthropologische Flüchtlingsforschung. In: Maria Six-Hohenbalken and Jelena Tošić (Hg.). Anthropologie der Migration: Theoretische Grundlagen und interdisziplinäre Aspekte. Wien: Facultas WUV, pp. 110-126.